Embattled Serbian Leader Stages Demonstrations for Himself

When the rally here ended, the workers carefully took down the posters of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, folding the pieces of tape so as not to spoil the edges. After all, the posters, as well as the banners and the red, white and blue Serbian flags, would be reused at the next such event in the next town.

“We want to show we are always ready to support President Milosevic,” declared Slavica Misic, vice president of the local Socialist Party of Serbia branch, as loudspeakers were loaded into cars and rain-chilled demonstrators piled into buses.

Milosevic’s latest tactic to undermine an unprecedented wave of opposition protests against his regime is to stage pro-government counterdemonstrations in small cities around the country. Supporters are bused in; the camera angles are kept tight so the crowds appear to be big in nightly reports on state television.

And today, Milosevic moves the show to Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital. Thousands of his supporters from all over the country are being ordered to converge on a downtown plaza at the same hour the opposition stages its daily rally. Many here fear that the result will be the first major violence in the series of protests triggered 36 days ago by Milosevic’s decision to annul opposition election victories.

In a significant gesture, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church lent support to the anti-Milosevic cause Monday, praising students for their “dignified commitment to nonviolence” and “truly democratic freedoms.” Patriarch Pavle also urged the opposition to cancel today’s rally to avoid “possible armed clashes.”

But opposition leaders, addressing another huge demonstration here Monday night, vowed to go ahead.

“Please don’t allow them to provoke any incidents,” said Vesna Pesic, one of three leaders of the coalition known as Together. “That is his [Milosevic’s] intention. His intention is to threaten and provoke us.”

Until now, dueling demonstrations have been marred by little more than egg-throwing and the trading of insults. But because of the sheer number of people expected today, any encounter can be expected to be volatile.

On Monday, independent B-92 Radio quoted travel agencies as saying their drivers had been ordered by the government to report at 3 a.m. to assorted cities, to pick up pro-Milosevic demonstrators for transport to Belgrade. Other transportation was being marshaled, and hundreds of police reinforcements were reported arriving in the capital.

Legions of people can be obliged to attend government rallies because they rely on the state for their jobs and the scant benefits they receive. Milosevic also continues to enjoy support among peasants, workers and less sophisticated voters who have no access to independent media. All television and most radio broadcasting is controlled by Milosevic or his allies.

As part of what diplomats have called the media campaign to discredit the opposition, Milosevic’s influential wife, Mirjana Markovic, warned in her weekly magazine column last week that political rivals were pushing Serbia--which, with tiny Montenegro, makes up the rump Yugoslavia--to civil war.

Milosevic told an American visitor earlier this month that he was holding back his own supporters who were eager to rally to his defense. He suggested that allowing supporters from areas like Kosovo, home to many extreme Serbian nationalists, to take to the streets would create a dangerous mix.

But with the opposition showing no sign of giving up, Milosevic evidently opted for holding as many as half a dozen rallies every day in assorted towns and cities.

“We want to show the foreign media and the world that there is another Serbia,” an official of the ruling party said. “We have to show the world that this has been too much fuss about nothing.”

The counterdemonstrations are reminiscent of rallies Milosevic used from 1987 to 1989 to exploit anti-Albanian sentiment and drum up simmering nationalism as he rose to and then solidified power. That fervor then inspired Serbs to wage savage wars in neighboring Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina that finally ended a year ago.

Now as then, the demonstrations follow an old-style Communist formula. Protesters are bused in and given matching placards, with uniform pictures of Milosevic. Those in attendance tend to be the elderly, factory workers and party faithful. State TV, which until recently ignored the opposition demonstrations, gives ample coverage to the much smaller government rallies.

In Smederevo, a down-and-out steel mill town about 25 miles southeast of Belgrade, barely 1,000 people huddled under umbrellas to hear party officials extol Milosevic’s virtue as the guarantor of peace and stability. Speakers included a student, a peasant and a worker, and were followed by women in wool overcoats dancing to Serbian folk songs.

Dragan Glisic, a local Socialist official, followed the party line in portraying the opposition as violent anarchists sponsored by dark foreign forces. He quoted Milosevic’s warning that “no foreign hand shall rule Serbia.”

“They are demonstrating under foreign flags,” Glisic shouted to the crowd. “They make chaos and destroy normal life. They don’t care about Serbia. They want to rule us under the same flags that destroyed us in World War II. . . . Everyone who doesn’t believe in Serbia can leave.”

“Traitors, out!” the crowd called back, followed by chants of “Slobo! Slobo!”

In fact, some participants in the opposition marches have hoisted German, American and British flags--as a salute, they said, to the Western-style democracy they seek. But Serbia remains a quickly xenophobic place, where memories of the World War II slaughter of Serbs are still fresh, and Milosevic has exploited the flag-waving, which opposition officials now recognize was a mistake.

Goran, a 27-year-old Socialist official who runs a gymnasium and was bused in from the nearby town of Smederevska Palanka, was typical of Milosevic’s supporters at the Smederevo rally Sunday. The little security he has is due to the party.

“The opposition has no program. The government just needs a chance to give us a better life,” said Goran.